“Almost all of these are going to end up in the trash,” dairy manager Matt Chapman said. More than 1,000 dozen other eggs already have been donated to a food bank, he said.

Despite optimism expressed by the governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts last Friday, the supermarket chain has announced no deal for ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas to buy a controlling stake in the company. A board meeting set for 6 p.m. Tuesday was called off, according to a Market Basket spokesperson.

“It feels like we’re a big convenience store,” Bedford assistant store director Chris Bielecki said, explaining many people come to buy only a handful of items each. “I don’t know how they can afford to keep these stores open.”

Managers gave about 20 part-timers more scheduled hours toward the end of this week,“hoping this would be settled,” Bielecki said.

But with no word, “everyone’s on edge,” he said of the store workers.

“People are just scared; people are worried,” he said. “The best thing about this job was the job security and now, it’s not there.”

Workers at the chain’s 71 stores, including about 30 in New Hampshire, have picketed stores for more than a month; most customers are shopping elsewhere until the situation is resolved.

In Portsmouth, more than 350 part-time workers remain without their jobs.

“We only have one single part-timer that was on a normal schedule who’s in here working,” Woodbury Avenue assistant store manager Jerry Paquette said Tuesday.

Across town at the Market Basket on Lafayette Road, assistant manager Michael Desmond said he hadn’t had any of the 147 part-timers at his store return either.

“None,” Desmond said. “All that’s left are the full-timers and the managers ... It’s (been) the same thing for the past five weeks.”

Both store managers used the same word when asked what the days were like at their eerily empty stores.

“Long,” Paquette said. “Very long days, and it makes it even longer when you’re just sitting here waiting, waiting to hear.”

Tyler White, head clerk at the Lafayette Road store, said tasks had been done and done again as the employee-supported customer boycott continued.